Life is a game... or is it?

Posted By: jcl

Life is a game... or is it? - 01/24/08 11:25

At least there are some quite convincing arguments that we all are entities in a computer game:

http://www.simulation-argument.com

http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0801/0801.0337.pdf

(Don't try this at home. Your 3D card might not be yet up to this task.)

Posted By: Lukas

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/24/08 12:37

If that is true, our live won't change, will it? So I think we'll never find out wether our world is real or virtual. And I think it really doesn't matter wether our world is real or virtual
Posted By: Joozey

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/24/08 15:38

Quote:


If that is true, our live won't change, will it? So I think we'll never find out wether our world is real or virtual. And I think it really doesn't matter wether our world is real or virtual





If we would really live in his computer game, I think alot of people would turn crazy, thinking they can get out by winning the game. But how to win? Well maybe you get exp. when killing other people! Last man standing! King of the Hill!.

If god came to earth telling us we all live in a video game, prepare yourself for a massive killing spree.


Anyone knows the movie "eXistenZ"?
It's a fairly old and quite odd movie, but if you like this philosophy, you should watch it . It's a bit different than ment here but still a good mindtwister.
Posted By: Ready

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/24/08 18:15

heh, if life is a game, I want console access and some cheatcodes
Posted By: ISG

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/24/08 19:30

Whoever programmed this video game did excellence on programming the AI. Congratulations! lol.

Kidding of course, they could have made 3DGS the best AAA Engine. jk
Posted By: PHeMoX

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/24/08 23:49

After clicking some links I've stumble upon this:

Quote:

Now we get to the core of the simulation argument. This does not purport to demonstrate that you are in a simulation. Instead, it shows that we should accept as true at least one of the following three propositions:

(1) The chances that a species at our current level of development can avoid going extinct before becoming technologically mature is negligibly small

(2) Almost no technologically mature civilisations are interested in running computer simulations of minds like ours

(3) You are almost certainly in a simulation.

Each of these three propositions may be prima facie implausible; yet, if the simulation argument is correct, at least one is true (it does not tell us which).

While the full simulation argument employs some probability theory and formalism, the gist of it can be understood in intuitive terms. Suppose that proposition (1) is false. Then a significant fraction of all species at our level of development eventually becomes technologically mature. Suppose, further, that (2) is false, too. Then some significant fraction of these species that have become technologically mature will use some portion of their computational resources to run computer simulations of minds like ours. But, as we saw earlier, the number of simulated minds that any such technologically mature civilisation could run is astronomically huge.

Therefore, if both (1) and (2) are false, there will be an astronomically huge number of simulated minds like ours.




That very last sentence doesn't mean OUR minds would possible be simulated, it only means that theoretically there could be a species running simulations of minds LIKE ours. Therefore eventhough it may not be a weird idea that future species might run simulations at all, it ís weird to suggest that thus wé might in fact be people whose minds are being simulated.

Somehow I'm not quite following the logic. I don't get the jump from species in the future back to 'us' in terms of being simulated versions of the "us" in the distant past, but actually being simulated in the future.

Another question that instantly pops up would be "Regardless of the possibility of a future species being able to do so, why would anyone even want to simulate being us or beings like us?"

Anyways, in my opinion it sounds like saying humans were created, somehow our current knowledge of the world and such theories don't add up. At least when you look at the world from our perspective and knowledge.

There's another problem with the 'simulation for study' theory. It's called time. Yes it's possible to simply let the simulation run at a higher speed time-wise (would cost even more processing power), but for researchers to actually do research wouldn't it still require them to dive into our 'mind-worlds' to check out the 'data' they are receiving/simulating?

I don't quite believe this would be feasible to do, unless they are somehow able to automate the process of data collections ánd observation/research.

From our current perspective, but even from a future one, the latter sounds quite unlikely to me actually. Would we some day invent computers to do our research for us? If we'd be that advanced by then, why would there be a need for simulations like that?

I also think we might underestimate the computing power that would be required for such a simulation. There's a near infinite chain-reaction of things that will change every split-second in our current world. Simulating that for each individual in this world or even for just one person would be a hell of a technological task in my opinion.

So, in my opinion if we are part of a simulation that has as purpose to actually study us, then those computers simulating our whole world and such must be really extremely extremely powerful. Otherwise it will take forever to both get data and do research on it. Or... this could mean that a lot of simulated people are actually not real people's minds that are 'connected' to the simulation, but simply artificial all together. I doubt we ourselves could be such a 'artificial mind' though, I somehow think that's impossible. Perhaps everybody around me is artificial, but I don't believe I am artificial myself,

By the way, for clarification, with "post-human" do they mean scenarios such as machines taking over the world and taking the place of humans, stuff like that? That's a scenario that seems unlikely to me to happen and then it would be even more strange to assume that those machines would want to research us in my opinion.

Cheers
Posted By: Puppeteer

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/25/08 14:39

Quote:

heh, if life is a game, I want console access and some cheatcodes



You're just a bot, you don't have a keyboard...
Posted By: JetpackMonkey

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/25/08 16:31

In some ways it's hard to distinguish reality from a computing environment, because you could argue that the laws of nature and cellular automata that make up our reality are a complex computing system in their own right.

I think it was Konrad Zuse in his pioneering book, Rechenden Raum ("Calculating Space" e.g. space that computes) who made a good point about it. I like this idea, because it doesnt dumb this idea down to suggest that reality is running on a supercomputer in an office somewhere.. but an abstracted and intelligent computing space based on cellular automata comprising our reality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculating_Space

In a lot of ways this is very intuitive to me.

At any rate, I'd like to sit down and give a stern scolding to the cosmic game designer about the design decision behind things like the Department of Motor Vehicles, George Bush or reality television.
Posted By: AlbertoT

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/25/08 18:34

One of the argument against the hyphotesis that our world is a computer simulation is the following :

Suppose that the planets , are just textured meshes
an super civilization made a program (using 3dgs, of course) running on a super computer
The planets are orbiting about the sun in compliance with Newtonian laws
Sooner or later the Newtonian gravitational constant should be adjusted to compensate the errors of the programm due to the fact that a computer, even a super computer, does not use real numbers

This is valid of course for any constants of physiscs
The point is that no modification of the natural constants has never been observed till now
Posted By: PHeMoX

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/25/08 20:53

Yes, but perhaps this merely proves the theory that we are in a simulation, because of that. Perhaps laws aren't as strict as we think they are, if they are artificial laws they cán change... but don't really have to. I agree that it's unlikely that a simulation would be endlessly flawless in terms of not making errors or adjustments along the way, so yes that does make the theory more unlikely.

Still, perhaps we, being in a simulation as we might be, would not notice such changes anyways?

Cheers
Posted By: FBL

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/28/08 11:39

I cannot save before I do my exams and if I mess them I can't load the previous state....
At least a save point would be nice.
Posted By: PHeMoX

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/31/08 00:08

Actually there is a save-point, in practice it just means that you have to do your exams again if you've failed them.

Cheers
Posted By: Michael_Schwarz

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/31/08 13:45

Life is still in beta. There is no Save function yet.

Comes with the next patch
Posted By: Joozey

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/31/08 16:01

Haven't seen an update for a while, last one was 65 million years ago...
Though, if the next update is also delivered by comet I prefer to stay in this version .
Posted By: Lukas

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/31/08 16:05

The save function is already implemented, but it's a Pro Feature. You have to uprade to "Live Pro Edition" for using the save-feature.


Posted By: ventilator

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/31/08 16:11

since when are NPCs supposed to use the save function?
Posted By: PHeMoX

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 01/31/08 20:45

Good point, but then again since when do NPCs question their own existence?
Posted By: FBL

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 02/01/08 16:01

Quote:

since when are NPCs supposed to use the save function?




Shhhht. Don't complain about more power!
Posted By: Kinji_2008

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 02/03/08 12:18

Reading some of these replies is making me ponder on whether or not the action that is controlling me has a while(1) with no break. ;-) Maybe we should take this "life is a game" thought more serious. I do find myself saying things like...

Nice words to my wife about a new dress:

"Sweetheart, that texture is awesome on you.. almost seamless."

Giving driving directions to a friend:

"No, I told you pan left 94 and adjust your tilt a bit for 4.5 quants. You'll see it just ahead."

Getting on to my kids:

"I told you to change your skins before supper."

Every once in a while I do notice a bug as my dog chases his tail and cant seem to exit the loop.

Maybe, just maybe life is a game. Sorry.. early morning attempt at humor.
Posted By: PHeMoX

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 02/04/08 05:27



All jokes aside, I do think déja-vûs are a very interesting subject in this respect. Perhaps your dog just didn't get as many interesting "AI events" in his code as we have and chasing his tail isn't a bug?

Déja-vûs on the other hand could very well be bugs. Well perhaps not really since we can't really trust our brains in terms of exact memory either, but I've had numerous occasions where I thought 'hey, I've experienced or seen this before'.

If it's simply my brain processing the same thought twice resulting in this erroneous thought of having had a déja-vû? I don't know, but it's interesting nonetheless,

Cheers
Posted By: Machinery_Frank

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 02/09/08 18:19

Déja-vûs is a process that has been described by sciences often.

It is simply the process of reading and writing at the same time in your brain and thus producing a wrong cognition. It happens rarely and is something like a disfunction but does no harm.

In many discussions like this one you see that people guess and try to find supernatural explanations just like they did with religion. But often there are explanations available when people start reading literature instead of guessing.
Posted By: Pappenheimer

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 02/09/08 19:33

I know this, too. There are Deja-vu and Jamais-vu.
But, the scientific explanation is nonsense in my opinion. They don't have actually an empirical base to state such a connection between some simply physical observations and a complex mental event like a deja-vu or jamais-vu.

I don't think that it is something supernatural, but the scientific explanation makes no sense IMO.

I had jamais-vus (never seen) several times where I remembered that I already seen a scene in one of my dreams, and I remembered that I dreamed it. And, I had dreams where I had the strong feeling that this will certainly happen, and it happened a long time later, when didn't expect it. Those are too complex mental processes to explain them with a simple hick up of the brain.
Posted By: Machinery_Frank

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 02/10/08 11:37

Quote:

I don't think that it is something supernatural, but the scientific explanation makes no sense IMO.




It is good to doubt and to have critics. We all ask ourselves questions and dont believe everything. I appreciate that.

But in this case I will rather follow the explanations of brain-reserchers. They do that all day and simply have more experience than we have.
Posted By: PHeMoX

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 02/10/08 20:58

Quote:

I know this, too. There are Deja-vu and Jamais-vu.
But, the scientific explanation is nonsense in my opinion. They don't have actually an empirical base to state such a connection between some simply physical observations and a complex mental event like a deja-vu or jamais-vu.

I don't think that it is something supernatural, but the scientific explanation makes no sense IMO.

I had jamais-vus (never seen) several times where I remembered that I already seen a scene in one of my dreams, and I remembered that I dreamed it. And, I had dreams where I had the strong feeling that this will certainly happen, and it happened a long time later, when didn't expect it. Those are too complex mental processes to explain them with a simple hick up of the brain.




Well, off course the current scientific theory is just a theory... an idea of what *might* be the cause. They don't really know yet.

Who says that they are 'hick ups' as in something going wrong or being negative? It might as well just be the brain evaluating possibilities consciously because they might matter. According to most scientists there are no things we do not think about when we register everything that happens in our life, as in... if something happens our brain seems to registrate a lot, but only actively remembers a small percentage of that. If we remember 'pieces' of the puzzle that we already know relatively subconsciously, then that's where it might struck us as if we now know things we didn't know before.

When it comes to dreams, it always strikes me how they seem to somehow be important, which is why I think it has to do with the function of dreams, which seems to be processing thoughts, emotions and possibilities based on our everyday experiences.

What would experiencing a thought be like, when we're simply evaluating a memory of years ago?? Perhaps it would feel like having a déja-vû too.

Cheers
Posted By: Pappenheimer

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 02/16/08 11:08

Quote:

if something happens our brain seems to registrate a lot, but only actively remembers a small percentage of that. If we remember 'pieces' of the puzzle that we already know relatively subconsciously, then that's where it might struck us as if we now know things we didn't know before.




That's quite near to that what I actually think!
Posted By: testDummy

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 02/21/08 15:29

If you're quite convinced it is, JUMP.
Who's got game? You do.


Posted By: Darkyyes

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 05/04/08 00:31

Then people that tells the "future" or special people must be a virus in the game that evolves and gains cheat codes making it able to make them really smart etc.. like that guy who can learn a language a completely new language in 7 days.. and nukes/earthquakes/comets are worms trying to crash the game, and blackholes are memory leaks :p

and handicapped people are Npcs who havent been set-up in the databases properly

dead people are Npcs that are getting switched with new ones with different functions and a different goal :p

dogs who chase their tails are entering the loop on free purpose, of course sometimes it skips what number it has already run in a circle and have to redo it, its also programmed into our world as a fun factor like in sims. :p


Posted By: Joozey

Re: Life is a game... or is it? - 05/04/08 00:47

More like GTA than sims ^^.
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